Washing Day
by bleak reality
Summary: Have you ever wondered how they keep clean aboard ship?


Author's Notes: This uses characters from my ongoing fic, but it should still make sense even if you haven't read that.

Here's a reference of the OC's so you don't get lost.

Nanu – 'the new girl', 16, female

Achi – Zion born mechanic, 25, female

Gavin – Matrix born programmer, 20, male

Sorry if anyone sounds out of character, but seeing nobody makes many jokes in the movie they tend to all come out that way.

***

Trinity rolled over, slowly waking up to the sound of Neo humming.

"Monday is washing day and ev-ry-bo-dy's happy..." he sang under his breath. She had to hide a smile, watching him. He looked so silly wearing only socks and his underwear.

"Is it Monday by any chance?"

"Yup," he turned to give her a grin. His cheerfulness was bright in the dim room.

"What time is it?"

"Past breakfast time."

"Why didn't you wake me?"

"You're not telling me you actually want to eat goo this early in the morning?" Neo wrinkled his nose in distaste.

"Not like there's any alternative."

He pulled on his trousers then sat on the edge of the bunk to struggle into his boots. "What I wouldn't give for French toast."

"With Peanut Butter," Trinity wriggled out of bed and began to look for her underwear, "And maple syrup."

"That sounds worse than goo."

"No," she stepped into her pants. "It's really nice."

"I can't imagine how it would taste," he took the shirt she handed him.

"It's good," Trin looked under the bunk, then glanced around the room.

"What are you after?" he asked oh so innocently.

"My bra." She paused. "What did you do with it?"

"Me? Nothing."

"Bullshit, where is it?"

"I don't know!" he threw up his hands in surrender.

There was a knock at the door. Trinity grabbed a shirt from the floor and yanked it over her head. "Who is it?"

"Nanu."

"Come in."

Nanu opened the door slightly, holding a small bundle of tightly folded material. "I found this hanging on Tank's chair in the main deck, Achi said it wasn't hers."

Trinity took the bundle and unfolded it. It was her bra.

She turned to Neo with a murderous expression on her face.

Nanu escaped quickly, shutting the door just as she heard Neo's outbreak of laughter.

***

Gavin caught up with Nanu in the galley.

"Hey."

"Hey."

It was the standard greeting. It pretty well summed it all up; "I saw you about six hours ago and now that it's morning I'll be seeing you constantly for the rest of the day until we say goodnight again for another six hours and then it will start exactly the same tomorrow and the next day and the next until one or the other of us dies or jumps off this ship."

So it was easier to just say "Hey."

"It's Monday today," he began the conversation.

"And?"

"It's also the first Monday since you got rebuilt."

"Your point being?"

"It's washing day."

"Washing day? You make it sound like a holiday."

"It's a bit of fun."

"What happens? Some communal shower or something?"

He laughed briefly, "I wish. But we all keep our clothes on. That way we save water."

"Like Pippi Longstocking?"

"Pardon?"

"Don't worry. When?"

"It goes in turns. You get the bathroom after Neo and Trinity."

"Neo _and_ Trinity?"

"Neo _then_ Trinity."

"That must suck."

"What?"

"Having your entire crew know everything you do. No privacy."

"We live with it," he shrugged.

She tried to change the subject to lift the mood. "When are you washing?"

"After you."

***

The water was only lukewarm, and made Neo's skin rise in goose-bumps. He turned in circles under the shower, face uplifted and eyes closed. Suddenly the water stopped, and white foam that smelt of bleach jetted down. He massaged the soap into his clothes, and then waited for the rinse.

And waited.

And waited.

Nothing happened.

He heard a giggle through the bathroom door.

Trinity.

He turned sharply, but slipped in the soap on the floor. He skidded, arms flailing to keep his balance before he slammed into the wall.

"Shit!"

The giggle became a full-blown laugh.

Reaching up from his position on his ass, Neo grabbed the door handle and pulled.

Trinity, Nanu, Tank and Gavin, who had been huddled on the other side of the door, sprawled on the sudsy floor in a heap.

"Damn you all," Neo struggled to his feet and glowered down at them.

Nanu looked up as if worried.

"I'm sorry sir, it wasn't my idea I swear; it was Tank's!"

"Mine?" Tank looked indignant. "Never! Neo," he tried pleading, "Would I do such a thing to you? My friend, my buddy, my pal? It was all Gavin's fault, not mine."

"What?"

Suddenly something grabbed Neo's ankle, yanking his feet out from under him. He thudded to the ground as water began to pour out of the jets above him again. He tried to get his feet under him, swearing, but kept slipping over and over.

"Hey Neo," he heard a voice by his ear.

"Huh?" A wet rag hit him full in the face as a burst of Trinity's rare laughter echoed around the bathroom.

She stood above him; her head thrown back and water making her clothes cling to her body.

Grabbing a handful of trouser-leg, he tugged. She fell. The others laughed while they wrestled, slipping and skidding over the floor.

They crashed into a drying rack, knocking the folded towels and cloths into the pool of water in the middle of the floor. Water still rained down from the ceiling.

Neo picked up the rag Trin had thrown at him. It was wet, heavy, scrunched loosely into a ball.

He glanced at Trinity, who looked at Tank, doubled over laughing.

Neo threw the rag. Like a soggy grey ball it splattered in Tank's face.

Tank threw the ball back at Neo. Neo's next shot missed and hit Gavin in the chest. Gavin went to snatch a wet cloth from the floor but slipped. He reached for Nanu, and she fell down with him.

On their knees they all fought, hurling wet rags and scooping water from the floor to splash at each other. The crewmates forgot for a few moments what they were doing; Trinity was no longer the captain as she wrapped a sodden towel around Tank's head like a turban. Nanu was no longer the new kid as her rag-ball hit Neo's chest dead centre.

Then as suddenly as it had begun, the water stopped. They slowly fell quiet.

"Hey," Nanu smiled, trying to get her breath back. "This communal shower thing isn't such a bad idea."

"And we used less water," Tank flopped on his back in a puddle. "Everyone but Achi is washed and it only took one cycle."

"Thank God we have one sane member on this crew," Trinity carefully got to her feet. "Come on people, we have to dry off now."

"Aww," Neo used the wall to support himself. "That was fun."

"Of course," Trinity opened the door. She turned back to face her crew, wiping wet hair back from her face. "Now let us never speak of it again."

She ducked as four wet rags were pelted in her direction.


End file.
